Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post reporting: "The Obama administration yesterday unveiled the first steps of its plan to pour $8 billion into the construction of new broadband Internet networks around the nation. And while many details haven't been finalized on how the stimulus money will be spent and who will qualify for the grants, interest in the high-speed Internet plan was high."

"Long lines stretched outside the Commerce Department building, where the three federal agencies in charge of the broadband stimulus plan hosted the first of seven public meetings… 'I don't think we've had this many people in the Commerce Department since it was built,' said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, associate administrator of the department's telecommunications policy office, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration."